Sathya Sai Baba

Sathya Sai Baba And The Athi Rudra Maha Yagnam: A Glimpse II
(Click On Pictures To Enlarge)







Athi Rudra Maha Yagnam: A Glimpse I
Athi Rudra Maha Yagnam: Conclusion

Labels: athi rudra maha yagnam, chennai

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Rajini makes rare public appearances
IndiaGlitz [Monday, January 29, 2007]

Rajinikanth is known to keep himself far from the madding crowd. Rarely seen at public events or parties, Rajinikanth, who enjoys an iconic status among his fans, prefers to maintain a low profile and maintain a stoic silence.

However, this week-end, it was a different Rajinikanth. He was spotted at two different occasions, hogging all the limelight.

Rajinikanth, a staunch believer of God, was seen visiting Sri Sathya Sai Baba, who is in Chennai for a 10-day Maha Yagnam.

On Sunday, the actor, accompanied by his wife Latha Rajinikanth and daughter Soundarya, was seen at the Chepauk Stadium in Chennai to watch the one-day international cricket match between India and West Indies. The actor, wearing a black cap, was found in an ebullient mood cheering Indian players.

Reference

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A healthy drive
The Hindu

CHENNAI : Volunteers of Sathya Sai organisation have screened over 7,000 autorickshaw drivers in the city for various ailments in the past seven years. These drivers are given a complete health check and an interactive session is held with a police official at the weekly medical camps.

In their screenings, the doctors found that eight to 10 per cent either suffered from diabetes or were borderline cases. The drivers have been given a health record sheet with details such as driving licence and blood group that they carry with them.

Among the other free medical services is the `liquid love' programme, a voluntary blood donation scheme. A 24-hour information service is being run from Sundaram, the organisation's headquarters at Raja Annamalai Puram. So far nearly 9,500 units of blood have been collected, the organisers say.

Under the young adults' health programme, 1,000 youngsters in villages of Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts have benefited.

Reference

Labels: sathya sai baba news, seva

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Karunanidhi to share public dais with Amritanandamayee
The Hindu

Chennai, Jan. 27 (PTI): Close on the heels of sharing a dais with godman Sri Satya Saibaba, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, a hardcore atheist, will be seen with another spiritual leader Maata Amritanandamayee at a public function at Nagapattinam on January 31.

Justifying his decision to participate in the function at Nagapattinam, Karunanidhi told the state assembly today that 'Amma', hailing from the backward fishermen community, was doing a lot to society, like running hospitals and colleges.

He said he will be handing over keys of the houses constructed for the tsunami victims by Maata at the function.

Karunanidhi had participated at a function last Sunday organised by 'Citizens Conclave' to thank Saibaba for laying concrete on the Telugu Ganga canal, which carried the Krishna water to the city from Andhra Pradesh.

The state had sought the help of Saibaba to cleanse the Cooum river, running across the city.

Reference

Labels: ammachi, chennai, drinking water project, karunanidhi, sathya sai baba news

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Sathya Sai Baba And The Athi Rudra Maha Yagnam: A Glimpse
(Click On Images To Enlarge)







Athi Rudra Maha Yagnam: A Glimpse II
Athi Rudra Maha Yagnam: Conclusion

Labels: athi rudra maha yagnam, chennai

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DMK'S return to divinity
The Pioneer
Bye Balbir K. Punj
Friday, January 26, 2007

The recent event in Chennai where Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK chief M Karunanidhi welcomed Sathya Sai Baba, whom millions worship as god, at his residence along with his family members, including Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran, his grand nephew, is interesting in many ways. Later, the DMK chief also participated in the public reception given to the Baba along with several important personalities.

First, a little backgrounder to the DMK and the Dravida movement is necessary. The founder of the Dravidar Kazhagam, EV Ramaswami Naicker, was not only a "rationalist" but also a self-confessed anti-Brahmin. In the 1920s, Naicker protested against the monopoly of the sinews of Government and economy by the "upper castes", especially the Brahmins. He targeted both Brahmins and the Hindu beliefs which, according to him, kept others backward. He also targeted the culture of Sanskrit that he saw as abetting the exclusion of other castes from power.

Naicker promoted the ancient Tamil language as opposed to Sanskrit and blamed Brahmins for giving Tamil a subsidiary status. Such anti-Brahminism led him to oppose religion and claim that God was an invention of Brahmins to suppress others - just like Karl Marx who claimed that religion was the opiate of the masses. To emphasise this, Naicker and his followers would periodically organise events where Hindu idols would be beaten by shoes in public.

As the influence of Tamil films on the people of the State rose and many prominent film personalities turned DK protagonists, the movement came to be closely linked to the entertainment industry. Annadurai was the most prominent among them, as also Mr Karunanidhi who was earlier a leading scriptwriter for Tamil movies. MG Ramachandran was yet another. But he was as an actor while the other two were leading scriptwriters. Adding more socialist and egalitarian spice to the DK movement, Annadurai and others broke out from the Naicker group when the latter married a woman decades younger than him.

The DMK used to claim initially that Tamil Nadu should secede from India. In 1967, however, under the influence of C Rajagopalachari, it gave up its separatist agenda and opened a new anti-Congress front in the State. For the first time, the DMK was voted to power in alliance with Rajaji's Swatantra Party. Thereafter, the Congress has never tasted power in Tamil Nadu where Governments alternated between the DMK and the ADMK. Interestingly, the anti-Brahmin movement had to seek alliance with a staunch believer and Brahmin like Rajaji to ascend to power.

In the last 30 years, the DMK has mellowed and matured with time to drop its separatist agenda besides getting rid of its atheism. The ADMK, especially after Ms J Jayalalithaa became its leader, has been openly pro-religion as the Puratchi Thalaivi visited well-known pilgrim centres. The DMK leaders have been more circumspect. Union Minister TR Balu had not so long ago derided Hinduism, but the party leader and his family members have virtually given up such anti-religious posturing.

When Sathya Sai Baba visited Chennai, there was a report that Mr Karunanidhi's wife bowed before him; so did all his other relatives. It is well known in Chennai that she used to visit temples regularly when Mr Karunanidhi was afflicted with an eye ailment and that once or twice the DMK leader too was seen accompanying her. It is said that when asked about the temple visits, the DMK chief justified the act by saying he didn't want to oppose his wife's faith. After all, "rationalism" need not necessarily mean atheism! At least grandnephew Maran was not apologetic about receiving Sathya Sai Baba's blessing in the form of a gold ring.

Call it the maturing of people in a democracy or the broad outlook of Hinduism, several other instances of avowed "rationalists" coming to terms with divinity are found in recent times - as in the past. Many a great man started as a rationalist to end up as deeply religious. Aldous Huxley is one of the most famous in this respect and his book, Perennial Philosophy, makes great reading about his transformation.

Adi Shankaracharya based his entire advaitic discourse on rationality. In Bhagwad Gita, Lord Krishna advises Arjuna to carefully consider his lessons in totality and, using his rational faculty, choose the one that he considers right. The maturing of the DMK leadership may probably be a demonstration of the wisdom of the Shankaracharya and the Hindu philosophic ascent from unbelief to belief, from "rationalism" to the acceptance of the divine. How can Mr Karunanidhi, with his pulse on the people, be an exception to this national stream!

There is, however, one more aspect that has much wider implications. Mr Karunanidhi, as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, also thanked the Baba for the donation of Rs 200 crore from his trust for the completion of the long-pending Krishna canal that brought drinking water to the parched Chennai city. Water for the canal was negotiated with the Andhra Pradesh Government 25 years ago when NT Rama Rao was the Chief Minister of that State.

But subsequently, Andhra demurred. It was the intercession of the Baba, it is believed, that made the canal functional. With many a river water dispute hanging fire for decades, this resolution was nothing short of a miracle. Only a religious personality could have brought about the change in the heart of the Andhra Pradesh Government.

Last Tuesday's newspapers reported another miracle: The saintly Morari Bapu persuaded some fishermen of Saurashtra to free a priced whale, which could have fetched them at least a lakh of rupees, that had got stuck in their net. These very fishermen were once infamous for butchering about 250 whales every year and the authorities were unable to stop them despite the official ban. What the law couldn't do, the preacher achieved with his passion for the respect of creatures. After he blessed one such whale, the fishermen have stopped killing the species.

Whether Mr Karunanidhi has learnt of this incident Gujarat or not, it is possible that in the episode of Baba's intervention in the issue of water sharing for Chennai, he has realised what religion can do where law fails. Alfred Tennyson said, "More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of." Morari Bapu, Sathya Sai Baba and hundreds of other saintly figures continue to silently touch the hearts and minds across the country in a way that "rationalists" cannot fathom.

Reference

Labels: chennai, drinking water project, karunanidhi, sathya sai baba news

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It's now Amma's turn to woo TN
Statesman News Service
CHENNAI, Jan. 24:

After the high-profile visit of Satya Sai Baba who came calling on Tamil Nadu after a gap of about two decades, it is now the turn of another celebrity to woo Tamil Nadu.

Mata Amritanandamayi who has been making low-profile stop overs in the city, would now make an all-out effort to convert people into her bhakts. She is in the state on the advice of the Malayalis Association in Tamil Nadu and is supported by World Federation for Malayali Association. Her visit to the state would last about a fortnight beginning 27 January, during which she would also hand over keys of the houses built by her mutt for the tsunami-affected to chief minister Mr M Karunanidhi.

"This is the final phase of houses built in Tamil Nadu. Though some work is pending on the houses to be handed over, we will go ahead with the symbolic gesture ahead of its completion," said the president of the reception committee, Mr Venkatraman, who was also the chief secretary of Tamil Nadu, fondly termed as "COO" (chief operating officer) by the organisers.

One of the richest mutt in India, Amrithanandamayi Mutt, headquartered in Kerala had taken up the task of building houses for the tsunami-affected in various parts of India and Sri Lanka. After Kerala, the mutt built the second largest number of houses in Tamil Nadu, the worst tsunami-affected state in India. On 31 January, Mata Amritanadamayi would hand over keys of the 1,489 houses built at Nagapattinam to the chief minister. The houses are part of the 1,890 built at Cuddalore and Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu and in Karikal in Puducherry at an estimated cost of Rs 150 crore. While Union minister Mr Anbumani Ramadoss has been invited for a public function on bhajan and satsang on 27 January, a host of personalities are lending their high presence during the Mata’s visit that ends on 8 February. This includes the architect of the green revolution, Mr M S Swaminathan, head of the Adyar Cancer Institute Dr Shanta, CMD of Apollo Group of Hospitals Dr Pratap C Reddy and dignitaries from Mauritius. "I will invite you (journalists) all to participate in the Satsang. It creates great vibration," said Brahmachari Abhayamitra Chaitanya, of the mutt.

Reference

Labels: ammachi, chennai, sathya sai baba news

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Karunanidhi emulates the Buddha
PK Balachandran
Colombo, January 23, 2007

The rationalist Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has said that he always wears a yellow shawl or scarf not because he has become superstitious, but because the Buddha wore a similar one.

Gautama Buddha is viewed in Tamil progressive circles as a rationalist, who fought against the caste hierarchy, Brahminical ritualism and Hindu superstitions.

According to the Colombo-based Tamil daily Thinakkural, Karunanidhi had given this explanation at a public function held in Chennai last week to honour the visiting Sathya Sai Baba of Puttaparthi.

The Baba had asked him why he insisted on wearing a yellow shawl ignoring taunts from his detractors.

"I told him that the Buddha's angavastram was a piece of yellow cloth and that was why I was wearing it. The Baba was amused," Karunanidhi said.

An avowed follower of the iconoclastic Tamil leader Periyar EV Ramaswamy Naicker, who broke idols of Lord Ganesh in virulent campaigns against idol worship and Hindu superstitions, Karunanidhi had started wearing a yellow shawl about eight years ago, touching off speculation that in the evening of his life, he was reverting to religion like many of his colleagues in the rationalist "Dravidian" movement".

History was made when, breaking a taboo, Sai Baba visited Karunanidhi's residence in Gopalapuram this time. He was the first Hindu religious leader to do so.

While Mrs Dayalu Karunanidhi worshipped the Baba in the traditional Hindu style by touching his feet, Karunanidhi himself welcomed him with just a namaste.

The two leaders talked for about 45 minutes. At the end of it, Karunandhi scotched rumours that the subject of discussion was religion.

"He did not talk about religion and I did not talk about politics. We talked about the Tamil language. The Baba speaks Tamil well," Karunanidhi told eager newsmen outside his residence.

Much interest among Lankan Tamils

The close encounter between the two opposites - Karunanidhi and the Sai Baba - has excited much interest among Sri Lankan Tamils, with the Tamil press in the island covering the event well.

Sri Lankan Tamils, deeply Hindu though they may be, tend to get disturbed when "Dravidian" or radically "pro-Tamil" leaders like Karunanidhi become Hinduistic and join the All-India "Aryan" mainstream.

They fear that this may dilute the leaders' commitment to the cause of Tamil assertion in general and Tamil rights in Sri Lanka in particular.

They find Karunanidhi's swings between "Dravidam" (Tamil nationalism) and "Desiyam" (Indian nationalism) a bit disconcerting.

Reference

Labels: chennai, drinking water project, karunanidhi, sathya sai baba news

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From: nideesh k
Date: 17-Jan-2007 08:36
Subject: Athi Rudra Maha Yagna - "small incident"

Aum sri sai ram,

I would like to share with you all a small incident.

Before the start of ARMY (Athi Rudra Maha Yagna) at Prashanthi Nilayam, one of the organisers, a Karnataka Youth member, was allotted the duty of getting the Lingam. Swami had indicated that an agent in Bangalore had to be approached for this. On approaching him, the agent guided them to a marble factory in Jaipur. So this person prior to leaving for Jaipur, went to a Hanuman temple to pray to grant him the ability to successfully bring the Lingam. After coming out, feeling that he was on a holy mission, he left his footwear at the temple premises itself and went to Jaipur barefoot. On reaching the place, they found that this factory was run by muslims, with all employees being muslims. The person in-charge, a young person, asked the Sai Youth to wait and work of making the Lingam was commenced. They chose a good marble without any cracks or bubbles for the purpose. The strange thing was that all work in the factory was stopped and all the employees gathered around the place where the Linga was being made and started doing Namaaz during the entire duration of the making of the Lingam which was for 4 hours!!! It was found that this was the routine in this place that whenever a lingam was being made in this factory, all of them gathered around to offer their prayers to the Almighty and the holy task was undertaken with an attitude of devotion.

The time came for Billing..........the person in-charge asked in whose name it was to be billed. The Sai Youth asked them to "please make the Bill on Bhagawan sri satya sai baba's name". Then the in-charge person told him to wait and brought his 90+ grandfather who was at his house. He came gently inside and said that he felt that it was his great fortune that he could at last make a Linga for BABA. Now the grandpa with his sweet soft voice told them,

"You know what, 40 Yrs back baba had come to this factory which was a small workshop then. I had offered Him one small Linga which was made here, but BABA said when time comes He would take it from him. It is only because BABA stepped into his small work shop it has grown into this big factory."

Saying this he said

"I cant charge BABA anything please take this and just give it to HIM."

So they left the place taking the Linga with utmost care and of course in BLISS.

When they reached parthi, our Dear Lord was waiting for them In the veranda. As soon as He saw them He asked them to come to the interview room, they removed the well packed Linga and were trying to show Him when Swami insisted that they place the Linga on His lap. Reluctantly, they placed this 8 KG HEAVY linga on the frail delicate lap as they had no other option other than to obey HIS command. After It was placed, Swami very gently kept touching the linga all over and said "THIS IS A PERFECT ONE" Then Swami asked them to keep It back. On lifting they felt that it was heavier. Swami then asked then how much it had cost them. When they narrated what had happened in the factory, Swami asked the Sai Youth who had brought the Lingam to return to the factory and give the owner Rs.11/-

On returning to the room as they had to fix this linga into a silver bowl like thing which all of you would have seen they had to measure it by Height and weight . Lo and Behold!!! The Linga which weighed 8 KG'S now weighed 11 KG after It was placed on Swami's lap!!! We know not what is the significance of this no 11 - the linga weighed 11 kgs - an amount of Rs.11/- was asked to be paid for this - the Athi Rudra Maha Yagna was conducted in 11 days and on each day the Rudram was chanted 11 times.

Jai Sairam

Labels: athi rudra maha yagnam, miracles

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Water brings Sai Baba, Karuna together
Arun Ram
Sunday, January 21, 2007 21:00 IST

CHENNAI: When Tamil Nadu's atheist chief minister M Karunanidhi and godman Sathya Sai Baba came face-to-face twice and shared a dais once in the last two days in Chennai, Dravidian rationalists and Baba devotees took pains to do whisper-campaign for their respective idols.

Sai Baba was in Chennai for the thanksgiving ceremony for the relining of Telugu Ganga Canal from Kandaleru in Andhra Pradesh to bring drinking water to Chennai by the Sai Baba Trust at a cost of Rs 200 crore.

Coming as it did soon after Karunanidhi's acerbic remarks on the controversial installation of Dravidian iconoclast Periyar Ramasam near Hindu temples, the meeting set tongues wagging on how the two big men would conduct themselves together. "What's wrong with the installation of a fully-clothed Periyar in front of temples in which Hindus worship gods in the nude," Karunanidhi said making a dig at idol worship.

The 'encounter' came quite earlier than expected as Sai Baba called on the chief minister at his residence on Saturday. While Union minister Dayanidhi Maran welcomed Sai Baba to the CM’s residence with a bouquet, Karunanidhi offered a traditional 'vanakkam'. While the CM and Sai Baba were closeted for almost an hour, not all DMK men waiting outside were enthralled. "Athidhi Devobhava (Guest is equivalent to god)," quipped a partyman.

The cordial deuce continued even on Sunday, when both Karunanidhi and Sai Baba gave the same message : 'Service to the poor is service to God'.

Reference

Labels: chennai, drinking water project, karunanidhi, sathya sai baba news

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Sai Baba pushes Chennai to limits
Sandhya Ravishankar
CNN-IBN
January 22, 2007

Chennai: Devotion knows no limits. The residents of Chennai will vouch for it now more than ever.

Almost every inch of liveable space in the Tamil Nadu capital now seems to be occupied by a Sathya Sai Baba devotee.

Thanks to the Baba's Athi Rudra Yagna being conducted for world peace in a city suburb, Chennai is bursting at its seams and hoteliers are doing a brisk business.

Ashok Sairam, one among the nearly 60,000 devotees, has come 500 km from his hometown Salem to catch a glimpse of his God.

After a vain hunt for hotel rooms to stay in, he decided to put up in a school. Sairam is not alone. At least 60 of his relatives and friends too are bunking here.

"We're staying tonight at the school and we'll be up at four in the morning to attend the yagna. One more night at the school and we'll head back to Salem," he says.

Sairam's tale is a common one in Chennai these days as devotees from around the country and across the globe are thronging to the Thiruvanmiyur suburb for the 10-day maha yagna.

With the city's hotels packed, many like Sairam have already found more innovative ways of spending the next 10 days in the city. They include taking shelter in marriage and banquet halls.

But it has certainly not been a smooth stay even for those who have managed to find a hotel room. "I'm one of the more fortunate ones since I've got a hotel room. But a lot of Westerners are in a really bad state - not been able to get rooms. Some get rooms about 18 km away but can't afford the high rates. So lots of them have simply gone back," says a foreigner, Kevin Gillian.

Even the Baba's volunteers and staff are living in makeshift tents at the venue itself and in marriage halls surrounding the area.

Faith perhaps makes the devotees fight the crowds and if things go the way they have been so far, Baba may now soon have followers from the Chennai hospitality industry!

Reference

Labels: chennai, drinking water project

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Patil calls for broad-minded approach to water disputes
Monday, Jan 22, 2007



CHENNAI: Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil on Sunday stressed the need for adopting a broad-minded approach to find a lasting solution to inter-State water disputes.

Addressing a meeting here organised by Chennai Citizen's Conclave to felicitate Sri Sathya Sai Baba for his contribution to the Telugu Ganga project, Mr. Patil said that though the country was blessed with perennial rivers people in some areas faced water scarcity.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi drew a parallel between the humanitarian assistance extended by the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust (SSSCT) and the benefits extended by the DMK Government to the poor. When the Krishna water scheme was envisaged, Sri Baba had promised assistance to ensure uninterrupted supply. Mr. Karunanidhi wanted the SSSCT to bear a part of the cost of a project for cleaning of Cooum.

Explaining his sharing a platform with Sri Baba, he said many might raise their eyebrows as to how an atheist could sit next to a spiritual leader. "I always respect genuinely saintly persons who uphold the principle that service to man is service to God," Mr. Karunanidhi added.

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology Dayanidhi Maran thanked Sri Baba for expediting the project to ensure supply of water to the residents of Chennai.

Tamil Nadu Governor Surjit Singh Barnala commended Sri Baba for extending help for the canal work.

Maharashtra Governor S.M. Krishna stressed the need for giving a thrust to projects for supplying water to people.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said the Telugu Ganga project was a shining example of promoting cordial relations with neighbouring States.

Chief Minister of Karnataka H.D.Kumaraswamy referred to the age-old ties between the people of Tamil Nadu and his State.

TVS Motors Chairman Venu Srinivasan said the project had been executed in such a way that water would reach Tamil Nadu without much loss.

Replying to the felicitations, Sri Baba appealed to the people not to entertain hatred of any kind. "Never hate any religion; never hate any individual," he said.

Reference

Labels: chennai, drinking water project, karunanidhi, sathya sai baba news

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Baba presents his 'heart' to Karunanidhi, ring to Maran
The Hindu
Sunday, January 21, 2007

Chennai, Jan. 21 (PTI): Spiritual leader Sathya Sai Baba said that he had "given his heart" to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi while presenting a ring to Union IT and Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran.

Speaking at the function here to felicitate Baba, Maran said he was presented a ring by the spiritual leader when he met Karunanidhi yesterday at his residence.

Tamil Nadu PWD Minister K Duraimurugan, who was also present, insisted on a ring.

When Sai Baba gave him a ring, he requested another one for the Chief Minister. A smiling Sai Baba replied that he had already given his heart to Karunanidhi.

Reference

Labels: chennai, drinking water project, karunanidhi, sathya sai baba news

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Politicians draw inspiration from Sai Baba
Posted on : Sun, 21 Jan 2007 16:05:01 GMT
Author : Indo Asian News Service

Chennai, Jan 21 Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi said Sunday that spiritual guru Satya Sai Baba's mission of serving humanity gives him hope and the courage to carry on with welfare measures.

Sai Baba was thanked at a massive gathering here Sunday for giving Rs.2 billion for funding the concrete lining of a 150-km canal to bring the Krishna river water from the Kandaleru reservoir in Andhra Pradesh to north Tamil Nadu.

On the occasion, Karunanidhi said he drew inspiration from Sai Baba's work.

'Service to mankind is service to God', he said.

'Both of us have been on our long journeys - like the rivers Cauvery and Kollidam - for the welfare of the people,' the chief minister added.

The country's top politicians attended Sunday's function, organised by the Chennai Citizens Conclave at the Nehru Indoor Stadium here to thank the spiritual leader for his funding.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. Rajashekara Reddy, Karnataka Chief Minister D. Kumaraswamy and Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh participated in the function.

Tamil Nadu Governor Surjit Singh Barnala, Maharashtra Governor S.M. Krishna and Union Ministers Dayanidhi Maran and Lalu Prasad Yadav were also present.

(c) Indo-Asian News Service

Reference

Labels: chennai, drinking water project, karunanidhi, sathya sai baba news

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Karunanidhi shares dais with Sai Baba
ibnlive.com
Posted Sunday , January 21, 2007 at 20:59

New Delhi: While addressing a thanks-giving meeting in Chennai, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Sunday asserted that, ''Being an atheist there is nothing wrong in me sharing dais with Spiritual Leader and Godman Satya Sai Baba as our vision of serving the people are one and the same''.

Karunanidhi was delivering his presidential address at the meeting got up by the Chennai Citizens Conclave to express gratitude to Sri Sai Baba for taking up works to strengthen the Kandaleru-Poondi canal, which brings water to the city under the Telugu-Ganga scheme, at a cost of Rs 200 crore.

UNI quoted the CM as saying, ''Somebody might express surprise in sharing dais with the Godman. There is no surprise in it. Though I am an atheist, I have come here because I subscribe to the view that service to humanity is service to God.''

''We are serving the people in our own ways. While he (Baba) is doing in a spiritual way, I am doing it as a Governing person of the State. There is nothing wrong in it (me attending the function)'', Karunanidhi said.

''At a time when there were fake Godmen in the country, Sri Sai Baba was a true spiritual leader. Those who serve the people are equal to God. I believe in this. No one can disagree this view'', he said.

''Whether I accept the God is not the question. We should conduct ourselves in such a manner that God accepts us,'' Karunanidhi said.

Reference

Labels: chennai, drinking water project, karunanidhi, sathya sai baba news

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Sathya Sai Baba calls on Karunanidhi
Sunday, Jan 21, 2007



CHENNAI: Sri Sathya Sai Baba of Puttaparthi met Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi at the latter's Gopalapuram residence here on Saturday.

The meeting lasted nearly an hour. The Chief Minister gave two books to Baba, including one on Kural. Asked what they spoke during the meeting, Mr. Karunanidhi quipped, "Tamil." And then he added: "Neither did Baba talk politics nor did I speak spiritualism." The Chief Minister said he thanked Baba for his contribution to the lining of the Telugu Ganga canal.

He had also appealed to him to take up more such welfare schemes in the State.

Earlier Sri Sathya Sai Baba was received by PWD Minister Durai Murugan, HR and CE Minister K.R. Periakaruppan and Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran.

Reference

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MK hails Sai Baba's service to mankind
Chennai, Jan 21:

There is nothing wrong in joining hands with a spiritual leader like Sri Sathya Sai Baba for the benefit of the poor, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi said here today.

Sharing a platform with Sai Baba, at a function attended by a galaxy of Union Ministers and Chief Ministers to felicitate Sai Baba for repairing the canal bringing Krishna water from Andhra Pradesh to Chennai for drinking purpose at a cost of about Rs 200 crore, Karunanidhi said he was attending the function because he accepted Sai Baba's words "Service to mankind is service to God".

"Whether I accept God or not is not important. What is important is whether my deeds are acceptable to God, if at all God existed," he said.

While refraining from addressing Sai Baba as Bhagwan (Lord), the DMK supremo said spiritual leaders like Sai Baba were working for people's welfare. He said he had "always differentiated between good spiritual leaders like Sai Baba and fake godmen".

Spiritual leaders like Sai Baba were only serving the people, he said, adding though Cauvery and Kollidam were different rivers, the water flowing in them was the same and their purpose was the same.

Just like the water flowing in those two rivers helps cultivate crops and produce food for mankind, he and Sai Baba had "come together for the welfare of the poor", Karunanidhi said.

Surrounded by states with plenty of water, Tamil Nadu had become a "state of tears" at the mercy of its neighbours for want of water, Karunanidhi said, adding Sai Baba had come forward to repair the canal bringing Krishna water to Chennai.

Both he and Sai Baba knew about each other, he added. "When Sai Baba asked me why I was wearing a yellow shawl despite criticism from many quarters, I said this type of shawl was used by Buddhist saints."

The Krishna water project began by former Chief Minister M G Ramachandran had started yielding fruits due to the help of Sai Baba, he said and appealed to him to contribute funds for the cleaning of Cooum river in Chennai.

Sai Baba said he was above political affiliations and provincial considerations. "People should be above religion as God is nameless and formless. God is consciousness and we should love this consciousness. Truth is one and when we follow truth, there would be no sufferings," he said.

When Sai Baba visited Karunanidhi's house yesterday, he presented Tamil Nadu PWD Minister Durai Murugan and Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran with two rings.

Durai Murugan said he refrained from giving a ring to the DMK leader as he knew that Karunanidhi would not wear it. (Our Correspondent)

Published: Sunday, January 21, 2007

Reference

Labels: chennai, drinking water project, karunanidhi, sathya sai baba news

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Atheist, spiritual leaders can join hands for people's welfare

Chennai, Jan 21: There is nothing wrong in joining hands with a spiritual leader like Sathya Sai Baba for the benefit of the poor, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, known for his atheist ideology, said on Sunday.

Sharing a platform with Baba, at a function attended by a galaxy of Union ministers and chief ministers to felicitate Sai Baba for repairing the canal bringing Krishna water from Andhra Pradesh to Chennai for drinking purpose at a cost of about Rs 200 crore, Karunanidhi said he was attending the function because he accepted Sai Baba's words "service to mankind is service to god".

"Whether I accept god or not is not important. What is important is whether my deeds are acceptable to god, if at all god existed," he said.

While refraining from addressing Sai Baba as 'Bhagwan' (lord), the DMK supremo said spiritual leaders like Sai Baba were working for people's welfare. He said he had "always differentiated between good spiritual leaders like Sai Baba and fake godmen".

Spiritual leaders like Sai Baba were only serving the people, he said, adding though Cauvery and Kollidam were different rivers, the water flowing in them was the same and their purpose was the same.

Just like the water flowing in those two rivers helps cultivate crops and produce food for mankind, he and Sai Baba had "come together for the welfare of the poor", Karunanidhi said.

Bureau Report

Reference

Labels: chennai, drinking water project, karunanidhi, sathya sai baba news

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Baba coming to city, to be thanked for water project
NT Bureau
Chennai, Jan 17 2006

A thanksgiving meeting will be held in Chennai on 21 January to express the gratitude of the citizens of the city to Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba for taking up restrengthening work of Kandaleru-Poondi canal, which brings water to the city under the Telugu-Ganga Scheme at a cost of Rs 200 crore.

Addressing a press conference here today, V Srinivasan, All-India President of Sathyasai Organisation, said the work was initiated by Baba, who had realised that the city was suffering from acute shortage of drinking water, without any request from either Andhra Pradesh or Tamilnadu.

Srinivasan said the trust undertook a technical study to improve the 65-km- long canal system from Kandaleru reservoir to Poondi as it could not carry the gushing water.

Srinivasan said the Telugu-Ganga project was planned to meet the growing drinking water requirement of Chennai City. The water of Krishna river would be diverted to Kandaleru reservoir via Srisailam and Somasheela. The water would reach the State through 65- km- long canal connecting Kandaleru and Poondi reservoirs.

The restrengthening work involved high grade cement linking, construction of escape structures and improvement of approach canal, he said.

The meeting would be held at Nehru Indoor Stadium on 21 January, Srinivasan said. Tamilnadu Chief Minister

M Karunanidhi would preside over the meeting. Other dignitaries including Chief Ministers of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, Governors of Tamilnadu and Maharashtra were expected to take part in the function.

Srinivasan said Sathya Sai Baba is arriving in the city after 10 years on 19 January and would be here till 30 January. Baba would also participate in a 'Athi Rudra Maha Yagam' being held between 20 and 30 January.

Reference

Labels: chennai, drinking water project

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Saibaba Trust to undertake drinking water project in Latur
The Hindu
January 17, 2007

Chennai, Jan. 17 (PTI): The Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust proposes to undertake a drinking water project at Latur in Maharashtra, All-India President of Sathyasai Organisation V Srinivasan said today.

Studies for the project had been completed and the trust had expertise and experience to undertake such projects, he told reporters while announcing a Chennai Citizen Conclave function on January 21 to thank Sri Sathyasai Baba for his role in bringing Krishna waters to the city to meet the drinking water requirements.

The Trust had enabled drinking water supply to 750 villages in Rayalseema area of Andhra Pradesh by drawing water from Thungabadra river, he said.

The Rayalseema project involved laying of 2000-kms of pipeline, building small reservoirs, constructing hundreds of overhead tanks and providing standby power generation.

The Trust had brought water supply to many villages in Mehboob Nagar and Medak districts of Andhra Pradesh, besides executing a Godavari rural supply scheme covering 550 villages, mostly tribals living in high ranges, he said.

Referring to the Chennai drinking water project, Srinivasan, said the mammoth works, undertaken at a cost of about Rs 200 crore so far, was initiated by the Baba on his own. "There was no request from either Andhra Pradesh or Tamil Nadu. Realising that the city was suffering from acute shortage of drinking water, he initiated the project", he said.

Srinivasan said the trust undertook a technical study to improve the 65-km long canal system from Kandaleru reservoir to Poondi as it could not carry the gushing waters.

The restrengthening work involved high grade cement linking, construction of escape structures and improvement of approach canal. To prevent water seepage, stone 'gabions' and geo-textile were put to create a rock surface.

The work was completed in 18 months, enabling flow of Krishna waters to the city.

On the thanksgiving function, to be attended by Sai Baba, he said it would be presided over by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi. Besides, Y S Rajasekara Reddy, D Kumaraswamy and Vilasrao Deshmukh, Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra respectively would also be partipating.

These states had agreed to supply 15 TMC of water to the city. Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, besides Maharashtra Governor S M Krishna and Tamil Nadu Governor Surjit Singh Barnala would also participate in the function.

Baba would also participate in a "Athi Rudra Maha Yagam" being held between January 20 and 30, he said.

Reference

Labels: drinking water project, seva

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Alice Coltrane, jazz pianist and widow of jazz legend, dies at 69
The New York Times
Monday, January 15, 2007


Alice Coltrane, widow of the jazz saxophonist John Coltrane and the pianist in his later bands, who extended her musical searches into a vocation as a spiritual leader, died on Friday in Los Angeles. She was 69.

The cause was respiratory failure, said Marilyn McLeod, her sister and assistant.

Coltrane lived in the Woodland Hills section of Los Angeles near the Sai Anantam ashram in Agoura Hills, which she had founded in 1983. Known as Swami Turiyasangitananda, Sanskrit for "the highest song of God," she was the guiding presence of the 48-acre ashram, set among the Santa Monica mountains, where 25 to 30 full-time residents study the Vedic scriptures of ancient India, as well as Buddhist and Islamic texts.

She was also the manager of Coltrane's estate, as well as of his music-publishing company, Jowcol Music, and the John Coltrane Foundation, which has given out scholarships to music students since 2001.

As a pianist, her playing was dense with arpeggios that suggested the harp; the instrument had an important place in her life. One of her childhood heroes was the Detroit-based jazz harpist Dorothy Ashby, and she was later motivated to study that instrument by Coltrane, who loved its sound.

Raised in a musical family in Detroit, Coltrane played piano and organ for church choirs and Sunday school from age 7. As a young musician in Detroit, she was studying classical music and playing piano in jazz clubs, in a group including her half-brother, the bassist Ernie Farrow, and the trombonist George Bohannon.

In her early 20s she lived briefly in Paris, where she studied informally with the pianist Bud Powell, and was briefly married to the singer Kenny (Pancho) Hagood, with whom she had a daughter, Michelle. She returned to Detroit, playing in a band with her brother, and then moved to New York in 1962. A year later she met John Coltrane.

She was playing vibraphone and Powell-inspired bebop piano in a group led by the drummer Terry Gibbs at Birdland, on a double-bill with Coltrane's quartet. Coltrane was well established by the beginning of the 1960s, though she hadn't known about him for long before moving to New York; the first time she ever heard him, she said, was on the 1961 album Africa/Brass.

They connected instantly; she moved in with him and traveled with the Coltrane band. By the summer of 1964 they had relocated from New York City to a house in Dix Hills, on Long Island. They married in 1965 in Juarez, Mexico, coinciding with Coltrane's divorce from his first wife, Naima Grubbs. By that time she and Coltrane had already had two of their three children together — John Jr., who died in 1982, and Ravi, who by his 30s had become an acclaimed jazz saxophonist.

Coltrane is survived by her sisters, Marilyn McLeod of Winnetka, Calif., and Margaret Roberts of Detroit; her daughter, Michelle Carbonell-Coltrane of Los Angeles; her sons Oran Coltrane of Los Angeles and Ravi, of Brooklyn; and five grandchildren.

In 1966, as the Coltrane band's music became wilder and more prolix, she became its pianist. She replaced McCoy Tyner, who quit without rancor, largely because he could no longer hear himself on the bandstand. Though she wasn't Tyner's technical equal and lacked his percussive power, she fit with the group's new purpose; by the time of the recordings that would become the album Stellar Regions, in February 1967, she was fluid and energetic within the group's freer new language.

She told an interviewer that Coltrane helped her to play "thoroughly and completely." This meant stretching the definitions of rhythm and harmony, but she also meant something broader; Coltrane was talking about "universalizing" his music, creating a nondenominational religious art that took cues from ancient history and foreign scales. He helped her to sign a contract as a solo artist with his label, Impulse. And he introduced her to Eastern philosophy and religion, which became the main focus of her life.

After Coltrane's death from liver cancer in 1967, Alice Coltrane took a vow of celibacy. And at first she made music closely related to his, often reflective, minor and modal; on piano or harp she played flowing, harplike phrases over a deep midtempo swing, and she worked with the bassist Jimmy Garrison and the drummer Rashied Ali from John Coltrane's band. On records like A Monastic Trio; Ptah, the El Daoud and Journey in Satchidananda she was able to reconcile blues phrases and jazz rhythm with a kind of ancient, flowing sound.

Coltrane met her guru, Swami Satchidananda, in 1970, and in more recent years became a devotee of Sathya Sai Baba. By the early 1970s she developed a renewed interest in the organ, because it produced a continuous sound; she wanted to make a meditative music that wouldn't be interrupted by pauses for breath. Her 1972 record, Universal Consciousness" with Coltrane on Wurlitzer organ and string arrangements by Ornette Coleman, became a far-out classic. In the mid-70s she switched to the Warner Brothers label and made four more records, including orchestras and Hindu chants. Thereafter, until 2004, she made records purely for religious purposes, distributing them privately.

After first establishing the Vedanta Center in San Francisco, she moved her ashram to Agoura Hills, just northwest of Los Angeles, and expanded it. In the past 10 years, she performed the occasional concert with Ravi, and in 2004 she finally returned to recording jazz, making Translinear Light, produced by Ravi, who reunited her with some old colleagues like Charlie Haden and Jack DeJohnette, as well as a chorus of singers from her ashram.

Reference

Alice Coltrane was very well known and her passing was carried by international news: New York Times, Indian Muslims, Telugu Portal, DailyIndia, Earthtimes, Daily News & Analysis, RxPG News, PlaybillArts, India eNews, JazzTimes Magazine, MP3, All About Jazz, phillyBurbs, MyFox Kansas City, Post Chronicle, International News Service, Inside Bay Area, Jam Base, Playfuls, First Coast News, Washington Times, CNN, Starpulse, KTTC, WREX-TV, United Press International, Lompoc Records, ABS CBN News, CNN International, Fox 28, WKOW, StarPhoenix, AND, Pioneer Press, Billboard, Guardian Unlimited, The Columbian, MSNBC, MLive, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Forbes, WMC-TV, The Columbian, Minneapolis Star Tribune, WPXI, KCCI, KIROtv, WFIE-TV, Miama Herald, Houston Chronicle, among numerous others.

Labels: alice coltrane, sathya sai baba news

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Radha's consciousness of Krishna
Monday, January 15, 2007
By Gautam Siddharth

Mata Ananda Radha Giri was lost. Well, almost. A Russia-born Ukrainian, she found herself in the middle of a busy crossing - busier than usual with the Ardh Kumbh in progress in Prayag - near the bus-stand, until she hastened across to this reporter negotiating a ride with an autorickshaw driver towards Kumbhnagar.

"I am a sannyasin," she said. "Could you tell me how to go from here to where the tents are?" She was in ochre and appeared a tad vulnerable. I offered a ride, which she took immediately. Where exactly was she headed? "My guru is the Pilot Baba, I have arrived in the city just an hour-and-half back, and am going back to the Ashram," she said.

In her mid-40s, she looked younger than her years. And very, very beautiful. So how and when did she decide to become a sannyasin?

"I was in Kiev when the Chernobyl leak took place in 1986. It was, as you would know, a huge tragedy. I saw suffering of the people, and I remember one day, I cried alone in my room all night, asking for God to show himself. I said, if you are there, I want you to tell me why this happened. Why did you make people so unhappy."

It was a long night for Yelisey Olena, Ma Radha's 'non-spiritual' or the ordinary name. Somewhere along the night, she saw light: It was a ring of blue surrounded by almost blinding white. And she heard a voice say, "I am here".

She looked around, and heard the same voice from another direction. Then another.

"That's when I realised that God was everywhere, but still I asked, 'I want to see your self. What's your self?'"

According to Ma Radha, that was the first miracle. It led her in search of the book - not a book that would answer her immortal yearnings, but the book. And that book was the Bhagwad Gita. She came in contact with the International Society for Krishna Consciousness soon after the experience, which she wanted to replicate through more reading, knowing. There were two more miracles to follow.

The second experience was just an year later, in 1987. In meditation, she saw the child Krishna, Bal Gopal, playing with her.

"He was blue in colour and I remember I wished for God to talk to me. And here he was teasing and playing with me as a baby. It was then I got the inspiration to set out in search of a Guru who could help me in realising what was it that I was going through. I was too flustered, too unsure of these experiences. I knew I wanted to see the self of God, and that I had seen him, but now I wanted to remain in constant communication with him."

Somewhere it got lodged in her brain that she needed a Himalayan yogi to guide her. She had already got totally involved with Krishna consciousness and spoke with a fiery pride about how she enacted Krishna Leela in front of visiting Indian Prime Minister Narasimha Rao (1993).

"I had dressed up my son as little Krishna, while I pampered him as if he were in Gokul. After the show, I felt very good about performing before the Indian Prime Minister, while at the same time feeling such an experience will never happen again, that I would never meet or see the Indian premier again."

She left for India the very next year, her first. She went to Puttapurthi where she prayed to Sai Baba to help her find the Himalayan Yogi she was in search of.

"And there was the Indian Prime Minister, visiting the ashram. I felt something that could not be expressed in words. It felt as if I was being told by a higher intelligence that an important part of my life lay here, in India."

Meeting the Indian Prime Minister twice wasn't the third miracle, though. It was, too, centred around an experience of Krishna. It was just after she was promoted in her job as an engineer-programmer in a designing firm. She was to get a flat of her own in Kiev, when she was faced with a choice: Go to Siberia and tell people about Krishna or take up the comfortable accommodation in Kiev.

Radha opted for the former, and has never regretted doing that: This time the Blue God, wearing yellow, a golden crown set on his forehead, and his long hair falling in waves on his shoulder, appeared before her as youth.

"That's when I realised I had to be a sannyasin, a step that I finally took last year (2006). I could not stay with Sai Baba because I needed more help, more time with my preceptor. He answered my prayers and I met Pilot Baba, who has helped me in becoming a sannyasin."

Could it be just one Radha in a million thronging the Ardh Kumbh.

Reference

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